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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25627492">melting for you</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kihyuks/pseuds/kihyuks'>kihyuks</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>hyungwon bingo (round 2) [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Monsta X (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Fluff, Fae &amp; Fairies, Falling In Love, Fluff, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, Multi, Weather powers, Witches, i wouldn't say it's heavy angst though, too many mentions of the game uno</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:49:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,891</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25627492</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kihyuks/pseuds/kihyuks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>after hyungwon's best friend blocks him for no reason, he finds himself feeling super down and sad. having weather powers, this sadness is reflected in ice forming all over his flat. it turns out that the ice is also affecting his neighbours, jooheon and hyunwoo, and hyungwon tries to find a way to fix it so that they no longer have to deal with the cold, but it turns out that he doesn't need to try very hard, because hyunwoo and jooheon's care for hyungwon brings him the happiness he's been missing in his life.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chae Hyungwon/Lee Jooheon, Chae Hyungwon/Lee Jooheon/Son Hyunwoo | Shownu, Chae Hyungwon/Son Hyunwoo | Shownu, Lee Jooheon/Son Hyunwoo | Shownu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>hyungwon bingo (round 2) [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1762429</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>70</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Hyungwon Bingo: Round 2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>melting for you</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>so here's my second hw bingo fic that i literally wrote like 2 months ago and just. didn't post LOL for the prompt 'ice'. </p><p>small warning for mentions of depression maybe? hyungwon starts off quite sad in this and deals with it quite poorly and i think it can come off as quite reflective of dealing with depression, so i don't want to not warn for it as his sadness plays quite a big role in the fic. also, the name of hw's best friend is fictional and i tried not to pick a name that i know is shared w any idols im aware of.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Hyungwon stretches his arms above his head as he feels the sunlight through the window casting a warmth across his back. It’s bright out - reflective of his mood this morning - so he shuts his blinds ever so slightly to tone down the brightness a tad. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon wanders into his kitchen, his bare feet on his wooden floors sending a shiver up his body, but the cold doesn’t affect him that much, not when it’s so bright and sunny outside. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Although a coffee is probably a poor choice considering the weather they’re currently having, Hyungwon starts his coffee machine anyway. Even in the warmest of weather, he’s never going to pass up a cup of hot coffee in the morning. He needs it to keep him awake, after all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>While the water boils, Hyungwon slides into one of the seats at his table and opens up his laptop. He clicks on the shortcut for his email on his desktop and starts to go through each of the emails one by one. If it seems important, he’ll open it and give it a skim read just to check if it’s worthy of his time. If it is, he’ll read and reply to it then and there, but if it’s not then it goes straight to the trash. Some of the emails don’t even get opened, Hyungwon already knowing from the title that it’s not relevant to him, and they get put straight into the trash folder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The distinct click of his coffee machine finishing sounds, so Hyungwon grabs the now ready coffee, takes a sip and hisses when he burns his tongue on it (he does it every morning like clockwork even though he knows better. It’s just part of his routine now) and goes back to where his laptop is sitting. While he slowly drinks his coffee, Hyungwon checks through the rest of his emails. He has a lot more than he usually does so it takes him quite a while to get through, but when he’s done he feels accomplished.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon finishes off the last few dregs of his coffee and then grabs an empty water bottle off of the counter, fills it with water, and then absolutely drenches his one and only plant in his flat with the water. He’s pretty sure he doesn’t need to water it as much as he does, but Hyungwon’s notorious for underwatering his plants and letting them die, and he refuses to let this new plant face the same fate. It had been a present from one of his friends, Hoseok, and he’ll be damned if he lets a present from Hoseok die just like that. Somehow he’s managed to keep it alive for the past four months, and he’s considering buying some more plants to fill up his flat a little bit more. If he can keep one plant alive he can keep multiple alive, right? (His track record says no, he definitely can’t.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s one last morning chore Hyungwon needs to get done. He grabs the bag of cat food out from under his sink where he stores it and fills up two bowls of it, before returning the bag. The two bowls he takes outside to his balcony and sets them down. There are a bunch of stray cats that live around his block of flats and so he always makes sure to set out food for them, even if sometimes the food goes uneaten. It’s better that he leaves a source of food for them even if it might go to waste, in his opinion, than leaving them to starve. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>With everything that he </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> needs to get done today finished (it’s a Saturday, after all, so he doesn’t have to do any actual work until Monday rolls around other than just keeping up with emails), Hyungwon finally hunts down his phone to check if he has any messages. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unsurprisingly, there’s only a few Facebook notifications and a text off his grandmother reminding him to stay warm now it’s winter. He smiles at that one as he looks outside at the blazing sun. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s still no reply from Yujun, his best friend, about the text Hyungwon sent him asking to meet up. Hyungwon’s phone is known for being kinda shitty, though, so he figures that it probably just never actually got sent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon pulls up the Facebook app, ignoring the notifications as he always does, and types in Yujun’s name in the search bar.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nothing comes up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon frowns at his phone. What happened to his account? Did he delete it for some reason? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Hyungwon has an inkling that that’s not actually the case. He logs out of his account and instead logs into an old, abandoned account from his teen years that everyone, including himself, forgot existed. He goes through the same process of searching his friend’s name in the search bar, except this time his profile comes up straight away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The truth hits Hyungwon like a truck. His ‘best friend’ blocked him on Facebook.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Anger surges through Hyungwon and the room darkens as dark, grey clouds float across the sky in front of the sun, the threat of rain on the horizon. He closes out of the Facebook app and angrily taps on his messages app to give the asshole a piece of his mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He types out a whole angry rant about how if Yujun didn’t want to meet up with him all he had to do was say it and blocking him on Facebook without a word is a really childish move and the like. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Typing out the words calms Hyungwon’s anger down a notch, but he can still feel it there under the surface.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He doesn’t hit send on the message. There’s no point, he realises, after having typed it all out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If he was blocked on Facebook, it’s only fair to assume that his number is blocked too, hence why he never got a reply to his text about making plans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon deletes the message and drops his phone on the sofa next to him. With the anger mostly dissipated out of him, Hyungwon is left feeling exhaustion deep in his bones.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He lies back on the sofa and watches as the rain pounds aggressively on the window.</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>The weekend passes by in a flash and somehow it’s already a Monday and Hyungwon has to work again. He’s lucky that he’s currently working from home so he doesn’t even have to get out of bed if he doesn’t want to, but somehow he manages to push through his sadness to drag himself out of bed and into his kitchen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sets up his laptop at his kitchen table, his preferred place to work, and sits down in his pyjamas. He doesn’t have the energy to get himself showered and dressed just yet, and the lack of need to do so in order for him to work does nothing to motivate him to change, much the opposite. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon logs onto his work portal and opens the first file he sees for proofreading. Most of Hyungwon’s job is just proofreading and editing articles and other similar documents. He doesn’t actually have to work the typical 9-5 weekday hours if he doesn’t want to, but to stick to some semblance of normalcy it’s what Hyungwon prefers to do. Of course, sometimes he’ll have work run later, and some days he finishes earlier, but he tries to stick to a fairly regular routine as best he can. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Working as a proofreader isn’t what Hyungwon wants to do. He wants to be a journalist, be writing the articles himself, not checking them over for mistakes, but his powers had got out of control a few years back and he still doesn’t have them quite in check, and until he does so Hyungwon’s going to stick to a job with as little human interaction as possible. And what could possibly have less human interaction than working from his kitchen day in and day out?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon stares at the words on the page, trying to read over them, but finds his mind just isn’t focused today. He reads the same sentence over and over and over again, but there’s a mental block.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He can afford to take the day off if he really needs to - he’ll just have to face a huge workload tomorrow - but Hyungwon hates doing that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Can he really manage to get through a day of work, though, when his brain won’t compute even a single sentence?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon sits there for the next hour, doing his very best to read through the article in front of him, but he barely even makes it past a few paragraphs, which is so slow of a speed that it seems unbelievable. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When an hour has passed, Hyungwon gives up. His mind just isn’t in the right place for it today. There’s no point in wasting his whole day trying to work when he clearly isn’t up for it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon closes the lid of his laptop and returns to his bedroom. He doesn’t even bother to get under his duvet, just lies down on top of it and shuts the world out around him. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon wakes up shivering. He frowns, wondering why it’s possibly so cold inside as he always has his heating come on automatically, but then he realises and lets out a laugh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s cold because he’s so damn sad. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Having the power to unintentionally alter the weather in the near vicinity based on his mood seems like it would be fun, but it’s caused nothing but trouble for Hyungwon throughout his life. If ever it rained when he was at school, he would be blamed for it, even though he tried to explain time and time again that while his powers do impact the weather to an extent, some things are just natural and not caused by him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No one ever listened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s funny to think about the fact that everyone loved to make Hyungwon feel bad for his powers, only serving to make the weather around him </span>
  <em>
    <span>worse</span>
  </em>
  <span> because people kept putting him in a bad mood. It shouldn’t have taken a genius to figure out that if they wanted more sunshine, all they had to do was to be nice to Hyungwon and put him in a good mood, as happiness always brings the sun out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yujun was the only one who ever made the effort to befriend Hyungwon, and now even he wants nothing to do with him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thinking about his (now ex?) best friend dampers Hyungwon’s mood even further and he sees ice begin to form in the corners of his room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could probably try and warm his flat up, or at least warm himself up by putting on some warmer clothes or climbing under his duvet, but Hyungwon does none of those things. He simply lies there and lets himself deal with the cold.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As uncomfortable as it can be, Hyungwon’s impact on the weather and the like isn’t harmful to anyone as it comes from a place of magic, and magic can never be used to directly harm another person. He can sit here in the cold for as long as he likes, and nothing bad will happen to him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And so that’s what Hyungwon does. He stays lying there on his bed and stares up at the plain white ceiling above him. He has no energy to move, no energy to care about getting himself back out of bed to do anything. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s no point, really. He’s just lost his only friend, so why not let the cold overtake him?</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>A week passes by without Hyungwon even really registering time passing at all. He goes about the motions of his day - drags himself out of his bed and to his kitchen table, works for most of the day, and then returns to bed as soon as he’s done. He’s barely taking care of himself, only doing the bare minimum that he needs to do to survive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ice and the cold only worsens over the span of the week. Ice patches are plastered over the walls of Hyungwon’s flat, and it’s starting to spread to the floor, too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon still can’t find it in himself to care about the cold. He’s freezing all the time, his body constantly shivering and goosebumps cover every inch of his skin. Yet, he just doesn’t care. He can’t find it in himself to. What does it matter if he’s cold all the time? It only reflects his mood. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon didn’t have a lot of work to do today, so he’s back in bed, staring at the wall as he lets his thoughts wander, a constant in his life now. He finds himself doing this more often than not. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A loud knock on the door sounds and Hyungwon’s tempted to ignore it, but he </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> gets knocks at his door, and the peculiarity of it gives him enough motivation and energy to get himself up to answer it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He opens the door to find two men standing there, bundled up in coats, looking a little worse for wear. It takes a few seconds for the recognition to kick in and for Hyungwon to realise that these are his neighbours that live on either side of him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi,” Hyungwon says simply, not sure what they’re here for or why they’re dressed like they are when they’re inside. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey. Sorry to bother you, but are you having issues in your flat?” one of the men asks. Hyungwon tries to look at his face, but his flaming orange hair is far too distracting. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Issues?” Hyungwon questions. He can’t think of any issues he’s been having recently. The water’s been running just fine and that’s the usual complaint in their building and the electricity hasn’t cut out or anything. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like, is it freezing cold in your flat all the time to the point that there’s ice forming everywhere?” the man elaborates. He peeks past Hyungwon and into the flat and there’s no way he can’t see the ice that coats Hyungwon’s walls. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, yeah, the cold,” Hyungwon says dumbly. He naively hadn’t even that the cold in his flat would also be affecting the people around him. He feels the guilt build up at his selfishness, but he has very little control over his powers. The only way to improve the weather is to improve his mood, but that seems impossible for him to achieve. “I’m sorry. That’s my fault.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?” It’s the other man who speaks this time. He’s squinting at Hyungwon and Hyungwon can’t tell if it’s suspicion or he just forgot to put his glasses on. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have powers that control the weather. I’ll cheer myself up and it’ll go back to normal. I’m really sorry for the inconvenience.” Hyungwon starts to close the door slightly, trying to signal to the two of them that they can go, but the one with the orange hair reaches out a hand and stops the door from moving. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s your name?” he asks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyungwon. You?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jooheon, and this is Hyunwoo. I live at 512, Hyunwoo lives at 516,” the orange-haired man - Jooheon - explains. “Is there anything I, or we, can do to help? You don’t look the best, man.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon makes an attempt at a smile, but he knows even without being able to see his own face that it falls flat. “I’m all good. Sorry again for the inconvenience.” Hyungwon starts to close the door again and this time Jooheon makes no move to stop him, but he nor Hyunwoo look convinced by Hyungwon’s words. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come knock if you need anything,” Jooheon offers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will. Thank you.” Hyungwon gives another smile (or at least as close to a smile as he can manage) and shuts the door behind him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He waits a few seconds and listens for the distinct sound of footsteps fading away before he finally lets out a sigh and slumps down to the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He really needs to fix his shit if it’s affecting his neighbours, too. They don’t deserve this. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Another knock comes to Hyungwon’s door the following day while he’s in the middle of doing his job. He’s partially tempted to ignore it, but he knows that’s not going to solve anything. He’s attempted to try and bring his mood up a little bit, and the ice has definitely been toned down a bit, but the issue isn’t fixed. So, if it’s Jooheon or Hyunwoo at his door coming to complain to him, Hyungwon won’t be surprised. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It turns out it is Jooheon at his door, but he’s not here to complain it seems. With a smile on his face, Jooheon thrusts a plate towards Hyungwon. “I baked too many cookies by accident so I thought I’d share them with the neighbours.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The lie is so blatant Hyungwon kinda wants to laugh, but he appreciates the sentiment. “Thanks,” Hyungwon says as he takes the plate from Jooheon. The plate is warm and the cookies smell delicious, presumably only just having been taken out of the oven. Hyungwon’s stomach grumbles loudly as soon as the smell of the cookies hits his nose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon’s still standing at his door, looking awkward now that Hyungwon’s taken the plate of cookies, and Hyungwon feels sorry for him. It’s quite clear that he figured out that something’s up with Hyungwon and baked the cookies in an attempt to cheer Hyungwon up, and Hyungwon can’t just turn him away knowing that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you want to come in and share these with me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon’s eyes widen in shock, but then his smile returns and he nods. “That’d be nice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon opens the door wider and Jooheon enters. He looks around Hyungwon’s flat as he walks in, taking the whole place in, and Hyungwon can only hope he doesn’t judge the simplicity of the decor. Hyungwon’s not one for interior design, so his walls are rather bare and plain. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon shuts the door. “Follow me.” He leads Jooheon to the kitchen and takes a seat in his usual seat, making sure to save his work and close down his laptop to not appear rude. He only has a little bit of work left to do for the day, so it doesn’t matter if he takes a little break to talk to Jooheon, especially after he’d be kind enough to bring cookies round. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon takes a seat opposite Hyungwon. “I know this is going to sound ridiculous because of course our flats all look the same, but it’s so weird to be in here when it looks so much like my flat.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mine’s much blander and plainer, I assume?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Surprisingly, no. I don’t have much for decoration in my place either.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon takes a cookie from the plate that he’s placed in the middle of the table and bites into it. He makes a hum of approval at the first bite, surprised by how good the cookies are. They’re the perfect combination of crisp on the outside and gooey in the middle, the type of cookies that melt in your mouth. “These are really good,” he compliments.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon smiles wide. “Thank you. I hoped you’d like them.” Jooheon clearly realises his mistake as soon as he says it and clamps a hand over his mouth. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry, I figured you out as soon as you brought them over. Thanks for thinking of me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t think it’s weird?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Weird to bring your neighbours cookies?” Hyungwon asks, eyebrow raised. “Isn’t that, like, the most stereotypical neighbourly thing to do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess so,” Jooheon agrees. He takes one of the cookies and takes a bite of it. Then, with a mouth full of cookie, he asks, “So, what do you do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For work?” Hyungwon asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon nods. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Proofreading, but I want to be a journalist.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon looks so amazed by a simple piece of information. It’s adorable. “That sounds so cool. Being a journalist sounds like it’d be hard work, though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is, but I can’t wait to one day be able to do it. What do you do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I work in a bakery,” Jooheon says, a small laugh escaping out of him at that. “Making cookies like these is my job.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, consider me your newest customer,” Hyungwon says, and he means it. The fact that there’s a bakery nearby that serves cookies as good as these and he’s never known about it until this very moment is practically a sin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon shivers slightly and Hyungwon realises that he’s not wearing his coat like he was yesterday when he and Hyunwoo showed up. Hyungwon curses himself for leaving the heating off, because he can only assume how much colder it is in his flat compared to in Jooheon’s. Even if Hyungwon had become numb to the cold himself, he should’ve thought about the fact that other people haven’t spent a lifetime dealing with weird weather patterns around them and so aren’t as adapted to it as he is. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon quickly heads into his living room to grab a blanket and takes it back into the kitchen, draping it over Jooheon’s shoulders. “You looked cold,” he says by way of explanation. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you. I didn’t want to ask.” Jooheon tugs the blanket tighter around himself, becoming nothing but a head peeking out of a bright pink blanket. He looks ridiculous, honestly, but Hyungwon thinks it’s kinda cute, especially with Jooheon’s cheeks almost as pink as the blanket is. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>While Jooheon starts to warm up a bit, Hyungwon munches his way through more of the cookies. He finds that he just can’t stop eating them and he can’t tell if it’s because they’re just that good, or if they’re enchanted or something. He asks Jooheon if that’s the case, curious. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not a witch so I can’t enchant things, unfortunately,” Jooheon says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’d be pretty damn useful, wouldn’t it?” Hyungwon’s always thought about how cool it must be to be a witch, to have actual control over your powers and be able to use them for good. Instead he’s just a plain old human with this dumb magic that does nothing but inconvenince his entire life. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is,” Jooheon agrees. “What is it with your whole ice thing, by the way?” Jooheon asks and Hyungwon can see on his face that he’s been dying to ask it since he arrived, but this is the first chance he’s had to do so. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon doesn’t mind the question. It feels nice, even, to have someone ask out of genuine curiosity with no hint of malice, even though Hyungwon’s powers are definitely impacting Jooheon’s life in a negative way. “I was born with it and it’s haunted me though my whole life, honestly. Any emotion I feel gets reflected in the weather around me, although only on a small scale.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ice reflects sadness, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon nods solemnly. “Yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon looks so sad himself that it shocks Hyungwon. He didn’t think that a stranger would care so much about Hyungwon’s sadness that he’d actually feel that same emotion himself. Apparently Jooheon is full of surprises, or maybe Hyungwon just has a lot to learn about other people. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I ask what happened?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Part of Hyungwon so desperately wants to tell Jooheon, to get it all out in the open finally, but a bigger part of him doesn’t want to bring it up right now, or ever talk about it, because talking about it just makes it that much more real. It’s easier to numb himself to the situation. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Another day, maybe,” Hyungwon says. “But thank you for caring.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon gives him a warm smile. He opens his mouth to speak, but whatever he was going to say is interrupted by </span>
  <em>
    <span>another</span>
  </em>
  <span> knock at Hyungwon’s door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m strangely popular today,” Hyungwon jokes as he goes to answer it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo is waiting on the other side of the door, smiling, a mug in his hands. “Hi. I was testing out some new tea and magic mixes so I thought I’d see if any of my neighbours wanted to try it and, well, you’re the closest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo and Jooheon clearly need some tips on how to make better excuses for their kind actions. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon takes the mug carefully from Hyunwoo’s hands. “Jooheon’s here already with some cookies he supposedly made by accident, if you care to join us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, well, if you don’t mind.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon leads Hyunwoo into his kitchen where Jooheon is still sitting wrapped up in his hot pink blanket. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nice blanket,” Hyunwoo jokes as he sits down. “Suits you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, my man,” Jooheon replies with a roll of his eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They clearly know each other already and Hyungwon suddenly worries that he’s going to be left out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As soon as Hyungwon sits down with them, though, the attention quickly shifts onto him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go on, try it.” Hyunwoo gestures to the mug that Hyungwon’s still holding. “I promise it’s good,” he insists. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon brings the mug to his lips and takes a cautious sip, wary of the amount of steam that is emanating from the drink. It’s sweet, but there’s an undertone of something else that Hyungwon can’t quite place. He takes another sip, then another, but the name of that interesting flavour evades him. “What’s in this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Happiness,” Hyunwoo replies, deadly serious, and Hyungwon genuinely can’t tell if he’s just really good at deadpanning jokes or if he means it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It only takes a few seconds for him to realise that Hyunwoo meant it. Hyungwon feels it form in his belly, a swell of happiness and warmth that brings an immediate smile to his face, one that he can’t stop even with his best efforts. All of the thoughts in Hyungwon’s head, the sadness and numbness that he’s been dealing with for what feels like forever now, disappear. He feels light, happy, like nothing in the world can hurt him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is actually amazing,” Hyungwon says, sipping more of the tea. “How did you do this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m a witch. It’s my thing.” Hyunwoo looks shy, but proud. “If you ever need more tea, you know where to find me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon might have to take Hyunwoo up on that offer one day. Not only is one of his neighbours apparently the most talented baker in the city, the other makes amazing tea that can bring any emotion to you - how has Hyungwon lived here for so long and never discovered this?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, the answer is quite obvious, actually, as Hyungwon’s not exactly the most social of creatures, so of course he’s never learnt much about his neighbours past recognising their faces from passing by them in the halls every so often. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I live next to a witch and a human?” Hyungwon asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m half fae, half human,” Jooheon clarifies. “I don’t really bring it up because, well, people aren’t always a fan of fae.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon takes a moment to study Jooheon and sees all the obvious signs that he somehow missed before. The slight point of his ears, the sparkle in his eyes that never seems to go away, his perfect skin. “Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t notice,” he says dumbly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Most people don’t,” Jooheon says. “Since I’m only half fae it’s not as obvious.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I feel so very human and boring all of a sudden,” Hyungwon jokes. It’s funny, really, that when he’s surrounded by other humans he sticks out like a sore thumb because of his powers, but when he’s with people who have actual magic and are obviously so non-human, he feels like he doesn’t fit in either. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Too human for magic users, but too magic for humans?” Jooheon guesses.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon nods, wondering how he could possibly have known that. Then he realises - Jooheon must feel the exact same way Hyungwon does being half fae and half human. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not the same as either of you, but I have two different types of magic, so neither is as strong as anyone else’s who only has one magic. It’s always hard to fit into a community when you’re torn between two, right?” Hyunwoo muses. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite the obvious heaviness of the discussion they’ve found themselves having, Hyungwon finds a warmth build up inside himself, and it’s not one from the tea he drank. It feels like he’s finally found the people he can relate to. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Having Jooheon and Hyunwoo over comes as a surprising, but welcome distraction. It has to be cut short, unfortunately, so Hyungwon can finish off the rest of his work he needs to do for the day, but he makes the two of them promise to come back another time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon feels like maybe he’s found some new friends in his neighbours, and the ice on the walls slowly starts to melt away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But later in the night, after Hyunwoo’s magical tea has worn off and there’s no more distractions for Hyungwon, he finds the sadness return in full force. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The walls freeze over once again. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>A day passes without any sign of Jooheon or Hyunwoo, and Hyungwon finds himself sadder over that fact than he ever expected. Of course it makes sense, they both have busy lives to get back to, but Hyungwon had been waiting for that knock all day only for it not to come. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The following day, however, in the evening, after Hyungwon’s long given up the hope that he’d get to hang out with Jooheon and Hyunwoo again, a knock comes to his door. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon finds himself hurrying over to the door, but then stands for a few seconds, trying not to look as eager as he feels, and pulls the door open.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We ordered too much pizza. Want to share?” Hyunwoo nods towards the boxes in his arms. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The three of them know it’s not the truth, they’d ordered enough pizza for three people on purpose, but Hyungwon decides not to call them out on their bad excuse to come and visit him. He’s far too glad that they’d actually come over to see him to care about the ridiculous excuse. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon leads them into the kitchen again - he doesn’t want to risk getting crumbs or pizza grease all over his living room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I brought Uno,” Jooheon says, putting the box of cards down on the table as Hyunwoo opens up the multiple boxes of pizza and sides to make them easy to access.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The table is soon covered by the boxes, so full in fact that there’s no space for them to put down plates or anything. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uno sounds good,” Hyungwon says to Jooheon. Then, to Hyunwoo he says, “Should we put these on the counters and then we can just grab pizza on plates? Then we can eat and play Uno.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I should’ve thought of that,” Hyunwoo says and helps Hyungwon to transfer the boxes from the table to the counters, leaving the small table free for their game. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon grabs three plates out of the cupboard and hands one each to Hyunwoo and Jooheon, leaving the third for himself which he fills with multiple slices of pizza as well as a slice of garlic bread.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon takes a seat at the table and digs into the first slice of pizza, humming contentedly when the taste of hot, melted cheese hits his tongue. It’s been far too long since he last had a pizza. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon and Hyunwoo join him soon enough and Jooheon shuffles the cards before dealing them out, seven to each of them, and placing the remaining cards down in the centre. He flips the top card over. A red seven.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon scans his cards, five reds, a blue and a +4. Not the best hand, not by a long shot, but he’s always been good at playing Uno. He’s lucky, or something. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You first,” Jooheon says to Hyungwon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon places down a red +2. With a smirk, he says, “Let’s start this off fun.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo stares at the card for a few seconds, looking lost, then a small smile appears on his face and he places down a +2 of his own, green this time. “Your move, Jooheon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon pouts, but there’s a flicker of something in his eyes, and a second later a yellow +2 is laid on the table. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon swears under his breath. He takes the six cards off the stack, bringing his total cards up to twelve. Every single one of the cards he’s just picked up are red. “Jooheon, did you shuffle these properly?” Hyungwon can’t help but ask. There’s no way he ended up with ten out of twelve of his cards the exact same colour by pure chance. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course I did. Why? A problem?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon knows Jooheon’s trying to get Hyungwon to reveal the cards he’s just picked up, so Hyungwon shrugs. “A good problem, if anything.” It’s a bluff, but it seems Jooheon believes it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The game continues on, Hyungwon picking up more and more red cards and getting increasingly confused. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Soon enough Hyunwoo is down to his last card. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon studies Hyunwoo’s face, trying to find any hint of what card might be his last. Hyungwon needs to play this hand right to stop Hyunwoo from winning. The stack of cards is currently on green, but there’s no telling whether Hyunwoo’s final card is a green or not. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Green?” Hyungwon asks, looking directly at Hyunwoo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo smiles and shrugs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yellow?” Hyungwon tries.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Again, the same reaction. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon groans and doesn’t even bother continuing with the rest of the colours. There’s no point. He just has to take a gamble and hope he’s right. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The green four stares up at him in the centre of the table, and Hyungwon stares at his own cards. He has a red four, and a green eight, one of the only non-red cards he’d picked up the whole round. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He picks the red, deciding that since every single red in the pile is attracted to Hyungwon, it’s less likely that Hyunwoo’s final card happens to be red. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo smiles and lays his last card. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A wildcard. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon throws his cards down on the table and whines, “This is such bullshit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I won fair and square,” Hyunwoo says. “I got lucky ending with a wildcard.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You cheated,” Jooheon accuses. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo shakes his head. “Of course not.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon grumbles something unintelligible and starts to stack the cards together again to shuffle them for a new game.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While Jooheon’s distracted, Hyunwoo sends Hyungwon a wink. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon tries very hard to stifle his laugh, but ultimately fails. He’d had a feeling that Hyunwoo had used magic to mess with the cards, there was just no way that Hyungwon had pulled so many reds by pure luck, and that wink confirmed it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon’s head shoots up. “You did! You cheated.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo shrugs. “Oops?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon pouts and slumps in his chair, dropping the stack of cards onto the table. “You suck.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on, let’s do another round,” Hyungwon encourages. “Hyunwoo won’t cheat this time, will you, Hyunwoo?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nope,” Hyunwoo agrees and he looks serious, but it’s hard to tell whether he means it or not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Either way, Hyungwon knows the game will be amusing for him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As more rounds of Uno are played, one after another after another, pizza forgotten and abandoned, long cold by now, the ice on the wall starts to thaw and melt away, as if every red card collected by Hyungwon was like a flame to the ice that burdens him. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Visits from Hyunwoo and Jooheon come fairly regularly, and over the next few weeks that pass, Hyungwon finds himself enjoying the company of his neighbours more and more. They’ve moved from not only having meetings in Hyungwon’s flat, to occasionally going over to either Jooheon or Hyunwoo’s flat, depending on the mood, just for a change of scenery.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon feels guilty whenever their meetings move outside of his flat, when he’s forced to face the ice that also covers their walls, knowing it’s all his own fault. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They figure it out quickly, though, and their hangouts return to exclusively occurring at Hyungwon’s flat only. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another knock at the door in the middle of the day on a Saturday and Hyungwon wastes no time in hurrying to answer it. He doesn’t care if Jooheon and Hyunwoo see his eagerness - he </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> eager to see them, so what does it matter if they know?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No excuse comes this time. “You’re coming with us,” is all Hyunwoo says. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon is out of the door in a flash. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They make casual conversation as they wander into town together. Hyungwon wonders what the purpose of this outing is, as it’s clearly something planned as Hyunwoo and Jooheon both seem to know exactly where they’re going. Hyungwon’s the only one in the dark, it seems. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s not until the ice cream counter is in plain view in front of them that Hyungwon realises where they’re headed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ice cream?” he asks, an eyebrow raised. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“See, I told you it’s a dumb idea,” Jooheon complains to Hyunwoo. “He has to sit in his cold flat all the time and then we brought him out for cold food. Who does that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My flat isn’t that cold anymore,” Hyungwon argues, and it only hits him right that very second that he says it that it actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>isn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> as cold as it once was. He didn’t even realise the slow, gradual process of him going from feeling so down to his mood improving. It happened so slowly, at the pace of a snail, but improved nonetheless. His flat hasn’t felt as cold over the past few days, and his mood hasn’t been as bad as it once was. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Are things getting better and Hyungwon didn’t even realise?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s down to Hyunwoo and Jooheon, surely, that things have changed, and suddenly Hyungwon feels the panic set in that they’ve only been spending all this time with him because they didn’t want their flats to be as cold anymore and as soon as everything’s fixed they’re going to ditch Hyungwon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But no, he reminds himself, Hyunwoo and Jooheon aren’t like that. They’re his friends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Being so caught up in his thoughts, Hyungwon must’ve missed some of the conversation, but he’s brought back into it when he hears Hyunwoo say his name. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyungwon, what flavour do you want?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Chocolate, please,” Hyungwon answers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll take a chocolate, too,” Jooheon says. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo orders three chocolate ice creams and hands over the money to pay for all of them before Hyungwon or Jooheon even get a chance to offer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You should’ve let me pay,” Hyungwon complains as he takes the ice cream cone from Hyunwoo. “It’s only fair.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I should’ve paid,” Jooheon counters. “It was my idea, so I pay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But you two always pay for things. It should be my turn to pay for us for once.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now, now, boys,” Hyunwoo says, “no need to argue. I already paid and that’s final.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bagsy I’m paying next,” Hyungwon calls and sticks his tongue out at Jooheon when he turns to glare at him. “No one can argue with a bagsy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck you and your bagsy,” Jooheon whines.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Children,” Hyunwoo mutters under his breath. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They start walking again after having come to a stop right outside of the counter and enjoy their ice creams as they walk down the street. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s not the warmest out and Hyungwon finds himself shivering a bit, but it’s not anywhere near as cold as the temperature he’s been living in for weeks now, so he doesn’t know why it’s bothering him so much. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, it’s probably the cold ice cream he’s eating, but anyway. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here,” Jooheon says and Hyungwon feels something over his shoulders. Jooheon’s jacket, it turns out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, you need this. I’m fine.” Hyungwon tries to shrug the jacket off to give it back to Jooheon, but he still has some of his ice cream left and he doesn’t want to risk spilling it so he gives up with a huff.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That was easy,” Jooheon says with a smile. “I didn’t even have to bring out the fae persuasive skills on you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No using your magical fae powers on us simple humans,” Hyungwon jokes. He turns to Hyunwoo. “Or you with your evil game-cheating witch powers. I know what you’re like.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo gasps. “I have never and would never cheat on a game. How dare you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon stares blankly at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was just the once on Uno, I swear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon keeps staring.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe twice. But who’s counting?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m keeping a tally of all of the times you’ve cheated when I should’ve won so that I can one day enact my revenge on you as you so rightfully deserve,” Jooheon says, sounding deadly serious, but there’s a dumb smile on his face that counters that fact. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have an idea,” Hyunwoo says all of a sudden. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Which is?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo grins. “Let’s sit on the beach and have a game of Uno.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon's and Hyungwon’s immediate no’s are only met by Hyunwoo’s loud guffaws. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon hums a song he heard on the radio the other day (he can’t even name it, but it’s catchy as hell, whatever song it is) quietly as he goes about doing his chores for the day. He’d neglected to do his chores for a little while, letting them build up and up until they got too overwhelming and he didn’t know where to get started, only making the problem worse by avoiding it, until it got to be too much and he’d woken up this morning and told himself that he’s going to finish off everything he needs to do whatever it takes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Currently he’s working on washing all of his dishes that he left to pile up in his sink (and if he’d hidden said pile away in a cupboard when Hyunwoo and Jooheon had come over so they wouldn’t see what a slob he is, well, that’s for him to know and no one else). He swirls the sponge around the plate, shaking his hips as he dances along to the song playing in his head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When that plate is clean, he adds it to his drying rack and then picks up another, but in doing so he forgets that he has the hot tap still running and his hand runs under it before he realises. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck,” he swears, pulling his hand away from the boiling hot water. He switches the tap over to cold and then runs it over where the hot water had hit his hand to cool it down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wait.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The hot water is running properly, Hyungwon realises, and he snaps his head around quickly to examine the walls of his kitchen, only to realise the ice is gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ice is </span>
  <em>
    <span>gone</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>How he didn’t realise until this very moment is beyond Hyungwon, but now that it registers in his mind that his flat is finally free from ice, and so Hyunwoo and Jooheon’s flats must be too, excitement courses through his veins. He can’t believe it. How did this even happen?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon tries to think back over the past few weeks? Months? How long has it even been since this started? Hyungwon can’t remember anymore. The only thing in his life that’s really changed, that’s brought a difference to his life has been Jooheon and Hyunwoo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And sure, Hyungwon could put it down to him simply forgetting about what had happened over time, healing from it and moving on, but he knows it’s more than that. He knows that Jooheon and Hyunwoo’s friendship and care for Hyungwon is what’s helped his mood to go from so low and down in the dumps to where it is today. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s happy, he realises, happier than he has been in a long time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The dishes are abandoned - they’re not important right now - and Hyungwon finds himself practically running over to Jooheon’s flat. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He knocks on the door and waits, but there’s no reply.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe Jooheon just didn’t hear him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon knocks again, louder this time, but again, Jooheon doesn’t come. He must not be home or something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon tries Hyunwoo’s door next. He knocks, waits, but faces the same fate as he did with Jooheon’s door. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dejected, Hyungwon returns to his flat. He’d been so excited about the ice finally being gone and all he wanted to do was share that with someone, but apparently Jooheon and Hyunwoo had chosen the absolute worst time to both be out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Hyungwon can’t let that ruin his mood. He can’t let something so small bring him back down when he’s finally managed to get himself back to normal and the weather that follows him back to normal, too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon takes a seat on his sofa, fanning himself with his hand. Why is it so hot in here? He’d check the heating to see if he’d left it on high, it has been colder than usual in his flat after all, so it needs to be put slightly higher than he prefers, but he can’t find the energy in him to get up to check. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon’s brief sadness doesn’t last long, however, when he receives a knock on his door. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon, Hyunwoo and a huge cake are waiting for him on the other side. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s this?” Hyungwon asks, a frown on his face. Is it his birthday and he forgot about it? No, that can’t be right, his birthday was a few months ago. It’s not any other big celebratory events that he can think of. Unless it’s Jooheon or Hyunwoo’s birthday, but if so surely they would’ve invited Hyungwon over instead of turning up to his door with a cake?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The ice is gone, so we got a cake to celebrate,” Jooheon explains.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon lets the two of them inside and smiles as they both make their way to the kitchen immediately, setting down the cake and then both going to the cupboards/drawers they need to get knives and plates. Hyungwon feels a warmth bloom in his chest as he watches the two of them do everything so comfortably, almost as if it’s their own flat, not Hyungwon’s. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s a nice thought, the concept of living together with Hyunwoo and Jooheon instead of alone, but it’s one Hyungwon doesn’t linger on for too long. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on, come get some cake,” Hyunwoo calls. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon sits down at the table and thanks Jooheon for the slice of cake that gets handed to him. “You really didn’t have to do all this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We wanted to,” Jooheon says. “We should celebrate your happiness.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon wants to insist that it really wasn’t necessary, but it feels nice to feel acknowledged and appreciated. Jooheon and Hyunwoo really went out of their way to buy a cake and bring it over for something so small, but it means a lot to Hyungwon. “Thank you both, really.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The three of them eat their slices of cake, and then some more slices, and Hyungwon feels his stomach so full, but still he’s tempted to grab another slice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo, fanning himself with a napkin, says, “Can you turn the heating off, please? It’s boiling in here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The heating, right. Hyungwon completely forgot about that when he felt so hot earlier. He has no idea exactly why it’s on so high, he never sets it to a very high temperature. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon checks the dial, only to see that it’s not even turned on at all. Weird. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon returns to the kitchen. “The heating isn’t on.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s so hot, though,” Jooheon complains, and Hyungwon notices the beads of sweat that have formed on his forehead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is it you, Hyungwon? Have you ever had this before?” Hyunwoo asks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, if I’m happy it’s usually just sunny but not too hot. The only other time I can think of it becoming unbearably hot is when—” Hyungwon breaks off when he realises exactly when the last time this happened was. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was years ago, back when Hyungwon had lived in a whole other city than he does now. He’d been hanging out with his boyfriend at the time and it had suddenly got super hot in the room as soon as Hyungwon had finally realised that he’d fallen in love.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shit. Is he in love with someone? But who?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo?</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Both?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>It crosses his mind, and the second he does Hyungwon realises what’s happened. He’s fallen in love with Jooheon and Hyunwoo and his powers are reacting accordingly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyungwon? What were you saying?” Jooheon prompts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Can Hyungwon tell them? He needs to be quick if he wants to come up with an excuse, but is there even any point? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He decides the truth is what matters. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was saying,” Hyungwon continues, building up his confidence, “that the last time this happened was the first time I fell in love.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both Hyunwoo and Jooheon wear the same shocked looks on their faces, almost like they can’t believe it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>An uncomfortable and stifling silence falls over the flat, only made worse by the unbearable heat that plagues them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who is it?” Hyunwoo finally asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon considers for a moment making up a fake person, but quickly abandons that idea. What would be the point now?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, kinda, like, both of you?” Not the confident statement Hyungwon had been going for, but it’ll have to do. It’s the truth, after all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Smiles break out over Hyunwoo and Jooheon’s faces, the last reaction Hyungwon expects to happen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why are you smiling?” Hyungwon asks, but now he’s smiling too, because if they’re smiling then it can only be a good thing. “Tell me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We were going to talk to you about it later,” Jooheon says, “but on the way over here Hyunwoo and I had a talk about our feelings and realised we like each other as well as you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You mean—?” Hyungwon doesn’t have to finish his sentence, because Hyunwoo starts nodding his head and smiling. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>All Hyungwon can do is grin, so wide that it hurts his cheeks, but he just can’t stop. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He likes Jooheon and Hyunwoo and they both like him too - how can one stop smiling when they find that out?</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon leans back in the water, relaxing against the side of the mini pool. The coolness of the water against his skin feels pleasant against the heat that still fills his flat. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Water splashes against Hyungwon’s face, bringing him out of his relaxation. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon looks around for the culprit, finding Jooheon trying (and failing) to hide his laugh behind his hand. “You suck,” Hyungwon complains, attempting to wipe the water off his face, but it actually has the opposite effect as his hands had also been in the water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jooheon gives up trying to hide his laugh and laughs loudly instead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon glares, but there’s no malice behind it. He prepares his hands to splash a huge wave of water at Jooheon, but Hyunwoo stops him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you want to get water all over your flat?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon doesn’t, in fact, want to flood his flat, so he chooses not to splash Jooheon (even though he absolutely deserves it). Instead he settles for the equally as mature action of sticking his tongue out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I feel like as soon as we set this pool up my boyfriends disappeared and were replaced by children,” Hyunwoo says with an exasperated sigh, but there’s amusement in his tone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon leans over so his face is right in front of Hyunwoo’s and grins. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo stares back, but the corners of his lips quirk, showing that he’s hiding a smile. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon closes the distance to peck Hyunwoo’s lips briefly, giggling after he does so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo’s smile finally breaks free. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, don’t leave me out,” Jooheon whines, in the typical way that he does. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Baby,” Hyungwon mutters, but then he shuffles over to Jooheon to kiss him too. “Better?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know. More kisses might help,” Jooheon says cheekily. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyungwon rolls his eyes and sits back. As much as kissing his boyfriends all day would be fun, it’s way too hot in his flat, and sharing his body heat with either (or both) of his boyfriends isn’t going to do any of them any good. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you, like, conjure up a nice breeze?” Hyungwon asks Hyunwoo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can try.” With a flick of his wrist, a breeze starts to blow through the flat and Hyungwon sighs happily when he feels it against his skin, cooling him down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyunwoo had underestimated his power, though, apparently, as instead of staying as a nice, cooling breeze, it soon picks up into a strong gust of wind. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pool almost topples with the force of the gale and Hyunwoo hurries to stop it before it can cause any permanent damage. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A few seconds pass before Hyungwon makes eye contact with Jooheon and they burst into laughter at the ridiculousness of the situation that’s just occurred, and not long later Hyunwoo joins in, too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The heat in the flat might not be ideal for any of them, but Hyungwon can’t say he hates it that much, not when it’s a physical manifestation of his love for Hyunwoo and Jooheon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ice brought them together, but heat keeps them together, and so Hyungwon will happily deal with sweltering heat every day of his life as long as he gets to keep loving his boyfriends. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>can you tell i was playing way too many games of uno with my family around the time i wrote this</p><p>as always comments &amp; kudos are super super appreciated!!!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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